Is Extractivism a Prime Cause of the Polycrisis?

Описание: This webinar, co-hosted by EXTRA – Existential Threats and Risks To All and EXALT – The Global Extractivisms and Alternatives Initiative (University of Helsinki), explores a critical question for our times:

Is extractivism a prime cause of the polycrisis?

Rather than treating climate breakdown, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, resource conflicts, and data exploitation as separate challenges, this discussion asks whether today’s emerging polycrisis is best understood as a complex outcome of one underlying driver: extractivism.

The session examines how a globally dominant culture of “take all you can before someone else does”—from colonial resource extraction to neoliberal “greed is good” to techno-capitalist data mining—has shaped the Anthropocene, especially at the expense of the Global South and working people everywhere. Speakers argue that this cultural attitude is not natural or inevitable and ask what alternative, system-changing values and governance principles could guide natural resource management and help avert a full-blown polycrisis in the near future.

🔍 Key Questions:
Is the polycrisis just a coincidence of multiple unrelated risks—or an epiphenomenon of simpler, shared causes?
How does extractivism operate across minerals, land, food systems, hydrocarbons, finance, and data?
Can identifying underlying drivers make it easier for policymakers to act than trying to manage every downstream risk at once?
What alternative value systems and policy frameworks could move us beyond extractivism toward just and sustainable futures?

🎙️ Speakers:
Ortwin Renn – Director of Systemic Risk Research, EXTRA; Prof. Em. of Environmental Sociology and Technology Assessment, Stuttgart University
Thomas Reuter – Chair, EXTRA; Prof., University of Melbourne, Australia; Trustee, World Academy of Arts and Science (WAAS)
Jun Borras – Professor of Agrarian Studies, International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam
Hamed Hosseini – Newcastle University, Australia; Convenor, Common Alternatives Initiative; FWAAS
Anja Kaarina Nygren – Founding member, EXALT; Professor of Global Development, University of Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS)
Barry Gills – Co-founder, EXALT; Prof. Em. of Global Development Studies, Helsinki University
Richard Gloaguen – Head, Exploration Technology, Helmholtz Institute for Resource Technology, Dresden-Rossendorf in Freiberg

🔗 More information and related content:
EXTRA InfoHub: worldacademy.org/extra
EXALT Conference & resources: www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/exalt

🎧 This webinar will also be followed by a complementary podcast, organised by Sophia Hagolani-Albov and Christopher Chagnon at the University of Helsinki.

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